Combining Micro Technologies and Unmanned Systems to Support Public Safety and Homeland Security

Previously, the military establishment has been the primary developer and user of micro technologies associated with unmanned systems. As these technologies become available commercially, a need exists to integrate the use of the technology into local or regional public safety and homeland security incidents. The purpose of this presentation is to explain several key factors to consider when using micro technologies and unmanned systems in support of public safety and homeland security officials. Real time information is critical to the decision making process for public safety and homeland security officials to make assessments and quickly resolve crisis situations. Unmanned micro-vehicles and micro technologies are well suited to remotely observe, gather essential information, and immediately relay it to incident responders. These technologies can provide extremely important support during responses to hostage situations, hazardous environments, search and rescue, natural disasters, border patrol and many others. The true benefit is having remote resources providing real time support to incident responders. This paper discusses the use of several different types of micro-vehicle platforms in public safety scenarios and their use of associated technologies such as GPS (Global Positioning System) autopilot, communication, and sensor devices.